Just one of those days

Oct 12

Today was just one of those days. 

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Maybe it was a let down because yesterday had been such a great day.

This morning was cold and foggy.  I didn’t want to get out of bed.  I didn’t want to walk one step. 

What is the question? The answer is no!! 

Dressed and full of bread and coffee, we are off into the dark. 

One last look at the monastery 

So here was my problem.

Somewhere in the night I had fallen into a brat trap and I needed to find a way out of it. 

I tried walking fast and hard. I tried walking reallly slowly. Nothing worked. As beautiful as the sunrise was and it was beautiful, I thought.  So what. Who cares?

I worked my way through a list of possible reasons for feeling the way I did. 

Was it the company? 

No, B is just as good as ever- pure gold. 

Did I ache?

 No. I worked my way up and down my body. No blisters, knees ok, hip behaving. Even my head was on straight. 

Backpack  too heavy? 

No. We had sent our big backpacks ahead via the brilliant post office delivery service. This new innovation is the “mature walker’s” ( translate old) best friend. 

Go on line to”mimochilas@coreos.com and in at least ten languages you can arrange to have your backpack picked up and delivered from your present location to your next location. 

Either pay online or stick 5euros per bag in an envelope and attach it to your backpack. 

We figured if it didn’t arrive we’d at least save five euros a day and never have to do laundry again. 

We did this ten times and the post office was ten for ten.

My daypack contained a liter of water, my raincoat and a well stocked kitchen. ( one tangerine , two cookies, two wormy apples and four Justin’s peanut butter packets.) Total weight four pounds.

Backpacks were not the problem. 

Our day was a reasonable 17  miles, not  too many ups and downs and there even three bars for coffee and bathroom breaks along the way.

Under any other circumstances, a perfect day. 

But what did I want?

I wanted to hide in a corner and read a book. I was sick of cheese, bread and tomatoes at every meal. I was bored with looking at mushrooms. I’d eaten more Pimientos  from Padron  than was healthy. I had tried all the red and white wine I wanted to try.  I was tired of tromping around in the great outdoors. I had walked and seen enough.

I was tired of dirty clothes.  I was tired of a dirty me. I was just plain tired.

I wanted PIZZA with some good old fashioned canned mushrooms and nice slimy green peppers on top of it.

I wanted a good book, a soft chair and a corner to hide in.
If I had been running a marathon you could say I had hit the wall. 

And I had a problem . I wanted to finish this walk and I was so close. Then I remembered Mick. 

And Mick says “you can’t always get what you want” Actually he sang it. 

So I walked and sulked and enjoyed walking and sulking , and thinking about sulking and I took four pictures.

Thoughts on sulking.

Charlie’s father. ” If you are going to do it, don’t complain. If you are going to complain, don’t do it.

  Hmmmm whose idea was it to take this walk?

My line.  “Don’t whine. It doesn’t change anything and it makes you tiresome to be around. ”

Hmmmmmm. Best to walk alone with mouth shut.

Finally B’s line. “Get over it. Just do it.”

So one foot in front of the other, I grumped my way down the path.

The second line in my pal Mick’s song “you can’t always get what you want” is  “but if you try  you’ll find you usually get what you need.”

 I needed to get in down the road. So I “just did it “.  A nice pouty effort. No photo.  Use your imagination. 

We arrived in Arzua with less than twenty five miles left to Santiago. 

We ate a well balanced dinner of wine, potato chips and ensalada rusa – Spanish potato salad with tuna peas and carrots and called it a day . 

It was just one of those days and tomorrow would be a new one.  Such is life on the Camino.